


A Little Piece of Paradise

by orphan_account



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Beach Sex, Drama, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Marriage Proposal, Romance, Weddings, fem!reader - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2019-01-20 03:49:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12424416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Cassian is acting strange and Reader is certain that he’s prepared to break up with her. But when she confronts him about it, he reveals the birthday present he’s been working on for her: an island for just the two of them.





	A Little Piece of Paradise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [firefeatherx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/firefeatherx/gifts).



> Written for @firefeatherx on tumblr. Happy birthday, princess!

“I think something’s wrong,” I said. “With Cassian and…” I paused, glanced down at my hands. “And me.”

Jyn turned to eye me with a look of concern from where she was seated on a storage crate in the docking bay, a datapad balanced on one knee.

“Why are you telling me this?” she said. “Talk to him about it. Not me.”

“I have. Many times. But he just…changes the subject or he disappears. I know he’s busy but this feels different.”

“Look, if Cassian was mad at you, he’d say so. Even with you, he wouldn’t keep that under wraps.”

“I don’t think he’s mad at me,” I whispered, dread weighing each word.

A heartbeat of silence drifted and drifted, on and on…

“You do realize,” Jyn said slowly, “that I’m not exactly the best person to come to for relationship advice.”

I rubbed at my forehead, my frustration blossoming as my options for explanations quickly began to dwindle to the one reality I didn’t want to face.

“But you spend so much time around Cassian,” I said. “More than anyone else. Has he…said anything? Is something bothering him?”

Jyn tilted her head in thought then shrugged. “Nothing besides the usual.” She studied me for a moment. “It’s really none of my business but…to hell with it. I say follow your gut. What does it tell you?”

“I don’t know,” I sighed. “He’s been avoiding me lately. He won’t even sleep in his own bed anymore and he’s spent the last week or two on his ship in the docking bay. He says he’s busy and rushes off but then I find him taking a break with Kay and I’m…” I spread my hands, helpless. “I’m lost.”

Jyn blew out a breath and it didn’t sound like a particularly good sign.

“I was hoping,” I continued, “that you would tell me it was just Cassian being Cassian, that it would blow over, and I was worrying about nothing.”

“Doesn’t sound like nothing to me,” she admitted.

I hesitated. “What…what does it sound like to you?”

“Classic signs of someone who’s about to make a run for it.”

There it was. Finally put into words I hadn’t allowed myself to  _think_  let alone speak. Cassian was going to break up with me.

***

That night, I sat in bed, knees drawn up to my chest, struggling to maintain level-headed but worrying instead. I hadn’t seen Cassian all day and I didn’t expect to see him tonight either, not when he’d spent the last week sleeping on his ship.

But late into the night, the door beeped and swished open and Cassian stepped in. He stopped just over the threshold when he saw me still awake, muscles drawn tight. He looked me up and down in one flick of his gaze, assessing damage, emotional state, course of action.

“What’s wrong?” he said, wary.

A hoarse laugh escaped before I could stop it at the impossible absurdity of that question. Everything was wrong and I didn’t know how it happened. I covered my mouth with one hand, closing my eyes to compose myself. I refused to cry. I would handle this like an adult – stay calm and be reasonable.

“Are you breaking up with me?” I whispered. My voice cracked and I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth.

Cassian hesitated, shifted slightly. “Did you…want to?”

I shook my head, feeling my composure slipping inch by inch. That wasn’t the answer I was hoping for, but, deep down, it was the answer I’d been expecting all along.

“I know what you’re doing, Cassian,” I said, my voice trembling no matter how hard I tried to keep it steady. “You’re letting me down easy. But there is no easy way, so…just tell me.” My face crumpled and I ducked my head, gripping fistfuls of the sheets to brace myself. “Please just tell me.”

A pause, so loud and too quiet all at once. Then Cassian crossed the room and carefully eased himself down on the edge of the bed. He reached out and took my hand, tracing his lips over my fingers and finally pressing a kiss to my palm. His grip was feather light, but there was the same reassurance and warmth in his touch that always surrounded his presence. A tear slipped down my cheek.

_I’m going to miss him._

“I have no intention of breaking up with you,” he said softly. “Now or anytime in the future.”

I sucked in a shaky breath of relief but the tears wouldn’t stop and I sat up on my knees, wrapping my arms around Cassian’s neck.

“I was so sure,” I hiccupped. “Then Jyn said - “

“Wait.” Cassian pulled back. “You talked to Jyn? Why?”

“Because I didn’t know what else to do. I thought you were upset about something but you wouldn’t talk to me and…” I trailed off, glancing down at my hands. “I was worried.”

Cassian sighed. He brushed the back of his fingers across my cheek and kissed my forehead.

“Let’s go,” he said, pulling a blanket around my shoulders.

“Go where? It’s after midnight.”

“I’m not waiting to sort this out in the morning. It’s gone too far as it is.”

I shook my head, confused, but Cassian held out his hand to me.

“You’ll understand,” he said. “When you see it.”

“See what?”

He just smiled slightly and led me out of our quarters to his ship.

***

I fell asleep on the ship in the back, curled up across the passenger seats, my head pillowed on one of Cassian’s jackets. I’d attempted to interrogate him as to where we were sneaking off to but he wouldn’t respond and I knew he wasn’t going to tell me anything he wasn’t ready to.

I woke to find the ship silent, empty, and unmoving. No roar of the engine, no Cassian in the cockpit. Only stillness.

But the door was open.

There weren’t the usual sounds of blaster fire or explosions or the deafening buzz of an overcrowded city, the noise that typically accompanied Cassian’s off-world expeditions. All I could hear was the gentle swaying rush of water against a shore, whispering outside.

I moved to the door and found a beach stretching into the pristine blue horizon, blinding white sands, soft and smooth as a pillow, marred only by a single set of footprints.

And there was Cassian standing in the distance, his shoes abandoned somewhere, leaving him barefoot in the sand, his pants rolled up to his knees, his shirt collar loose and open, his hair teased by the wind. He slid his hands into his pockets and turned his face to the twin suns, eyes closed.

He looked more peaceful than I’d ever seen him before.

I hated the idea of interrupting him, breaking this rare moment he would likely never have again. So I waited for a minute or two before heading out to join him. When I was halfway there, he turned and a soft, easy smile spread across his face as he held out his hand to me. I laced my fingers into his and came to stand behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist, resting my head between his shoulder blades.

“I wanted to surprise you,” he said, his voice vibrating low through his body, smooth against my cheek. “It’s been so hard to keep all this from you. But I’ve missed your birthday every year and I wasn’t going to blow it this time.”

“Cassian,” I sighed, shifting around to face him. “I’ve told you, I really don’t mind. You have other responsibilities.”

Cassian brought our clasped hands up and kissed my knuckles. “That’s why you deserved something special. You never complain, even though I know you’ve been disappointed in the past that I forgot over and over.”

He gestured to the crystal clear water then to the swath of trees behind us.

“It’s for you, my love,” he said. “All of it.”

“For the whole day?”

“For as long as you want. It’s a small island, not enough land for proper habitation, and it floods in the spring, so I got it for a song.”

“Wait.” I pulled back. “You  _bought_ an island?”

He nodded. “I had hoped to have a few other things ready before you saw it but – “

I flung my arms around his neck, cutting him off, and he stumbled back a step, laughing in surprise.

“I guess that means you like it,” he said.

“Like it? Cassian, you bought me an island. I  _love_  it.”

He cupped my face in his hands and made a mess of a kiss, all smiles and teeth, until it wasn’t really a kiss and more of a spreading of that infectious smile I saw so rarely these days. And his laughter tasted so sweet, like starlight, like summer, that I grew dizzy-drunk in a heartbeat.

“I contacted base on the flight over,” he said, brushing my hair away from my face. “We have the whole day to do whatever you like.” He hesitated but his eyes were bright and boyish with mischief. “Maybe go for a swim.”

“Did you bring my swimsuit?”

“Do you need one?” he said, his dropping to a low rasp.

My eyebrows shot up. His hands drifted to my hips, pulling me against him.

“It’s just you and me,” he added.

“Cassian,” I said in a mock serious tone. “Did you buy me an island just to get me naked?”

“…is it working?”

His fingers crept under the hem of my shirt, skating up my sides with a shiver-soft touch, thumbs sweeping my ribs in a ticklish glide. I squirmed out of reach, grabbing a fistful of his shirt at the last minute as I backed up towards the ocean, taking him with me.

Fumbling fingers tugged at clothing even as Cassian and I were already wading ankle deep, knee deep, waist deep, into the water, so warm it felt like a hot bath. In my eagerness, my shirt got tangled around my arms and head. When Cassian finally stopped laughing and pulled my shirt off the rest of the way, his face was mere inches away from mine. And the way the sunlight cast shades of gold in his brown eyes and across his dark hair, it made my heart ache to see him like this, carefree, smiling.

_Happy._

A cool breeze gusted over my exposed skin and I squeaked in surprise, crossing my arms, heat flushing across my face. Cassian tilted my chin up, his arm hooked around my waist, drawing me against him until all I could feel was the heat of his skin.

My fingers ducked down to his pants and tugged and pulled and finally got his belt free. I kicked off my boots, bumping against Cassian when I refused to separate from him, and I nudged my boots onto the beach with one foot.

I shoved Cassian’s pants down past his hips and he wormed his way out of them the rest of the way. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he picked me up, my legs locked around his waist, as he waded out into the depths of the ocean until the beach was lost from sight and it was just him and me, the sky and the sea, kisses of salt water and smiles.

***

The day passed in a lazy blur, slipping in and out of the water, drying off in the sun as Cassian’s fingertips traced every dip and swell of my body, more out of habit and his constant craving for contact, even here, even away from war, when the galaxy had been reduced to an island and the only two people in existence was him and me. Still, he needed, craved, to touch, to kiss, to look, as much and as long as he wanted to.

As the suns drifted below the horizon, goosebumps rippled across my skin. Cassian retrieved his shirt and settled it over my head, sweeping a wet strand of hair out of my eyes. My shirt had been tossed in a wet heap on the beach, somewhere closer to the ship, but Cassian had been more mindful and put his clothes folded neatly away from the water, keeping them warm and dry. He fetched his pants and shook the sand out of them before pulling them on.

“I’ll be right back,” he said with a kiss to my shoulder. “Don’t go anywhere.”

He jogged down the beach to the ship and returned minutes later with a blanket and a handful of rations. He tore open a packet of rations with his teeth as he sat behind me, his legs stretched out to either side as he wrapped the blanket around both of us.

“It’s not the picnic we were going to have for your birthday,” he said. “But at least it’s something.”

I leaned back against his chest and he nuzzled at my hair. “It’s perfect,” I said. “All of it.”

_And it’s almost over._

I closed my eyes and turned my face into Cassian’s neck, breathing in the sharp salt of the ocean that still clung to his skin. What were the chances that another day like this would happen? He was always so busy, barely getting away for a few hours, let alone an entire day, never mind any longer than that.

But to feel the tension leave Cassian so completely, to see how readily he smiled, to watch the sun cast him in gold…

“I never want this to end,” I whispered.

Cassian’s hand skimmed down my back, curling around my waist. “I know.”

The stars winked themselves awake one by one, and a full moon rose in the distance, cresting the sloping waves in silver.

Cassian shifted, brushing his mouth against the top of my head. He set something small on the sand in front of me. I could barely see it in the fading light but it was impossible to mistake for anything else.

A tiny box.

I reached out, my fingers trembling, and picked it up, flipped it open. Inside was a ring with a gemstone no bigger than the head of a pin, with blues and greens and silver swirled across its surface, making it look like a miniature planet. I held it up to the light to see an inscription running along the inside that read –

_For my world._

“I’ve wanted to tell you everything,” Cassian said. “For weeks. I didn’t trust myself around you.”

“But…Cassian,” I said, struggling to breathe past the tightness in my chest, alternating between gripping the ring like a lifeline and preparing to stuff it in the box and push it away until I could just  _think_  for a minute or two. “We’ve never talked about this before.”

“I know and I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to spring it on you. I’d had a whole speech planned about no pressure or obligations and now…”

He trailed off with a helpless gesture and when he spoke again, his voice was shaking as hard as my hands were. “I can’t remember a single word.”

He inched closer to sit beside me on the sand, his knee bumping my leg as he placed his hand over mine.

“I’m not around as much as I should be,” he said. “And sometimes I don’t know how to…talk about things and I see how much it frustrates you. I don’t really have a right to ask in the first place but…” He paused and brushed a lock of hair away from my eyes, trailing his thumb along my cheek. “I want the galaxy to see how proud I am to have you in my life.”

Silence.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t think.

Less than twenty-four hours ago, I had been so sure that Cassian was going to leave me and now this. But even though neither one of us had brought anything like this up before, in a way, it felt right, not so much as a marriage, but a promise to come back to each other at the end of the day, no matter what battles were fought in the emptiness of space.

“I realize,” Cassian added, his gaze focused on our hands. “That it’s a lot to take in. If you need time to think about it or if you say no – “

“Yes,” I cut in, the word popping out, steady and confident despite the uncontrollable tremble that shot through me.

Cassian’s gaze darted up to meet mine, his eyebrows raised. “…yes?” he said, his voice tentative and soft. “Are you…sure?”

I nodded and hiccupped a laugh. “Yes. Scared out of my mind but I’m sure.”

A shadow of hesitation and concern darkened his eyes. “Sweetheart, if you’re not ready – “

“I am. Surprised and still getting used to the idea but I’m ready.”

The concern lingered, tightening his lips, pulling a frown across his face. I climbed into his lap, my knees bracketing his hips, straddling him, forcing him to look me in the eye.

“I want you, Cassian,” I said.

He cupped my face in his hand, the broad expanse of his palm warm and firm against my cheek. Without looking away from him, I nuzzled at his palm with light, ticklish kisses, and the frown that had been creeping across his face vanished, replaced by relief.

Cassian took the ring and slid it onto my finger, his hands shaking slightly.

I placed my hand on his chest, his heart thrumming beneath my palm, as I leaned in and kissed him, soft at first, yet firm with no doubt or hesitation. Then I swiped at his bottom lip with my tongue to prove my point, to show just how much I wanted him.

He made a surprised, pleased sound in the back of his throat and I slid my tongue past his lips, gliding along the roof of his mouth. His hand settled on my lower back, pulling me flush against him, the rough fabric of his pants scraping my bare thighs. I could already feel the hard, hot length of his cock as my fingers tugged at his zipper.

My teeth teased at his bottom lip with a pinching nip before I kissed down his throat, down his chest, his skin still warm from the sun and salty from the sea. When I reached the waistband of his pants and slowly opened his fly, there was the head of his cock, waiting, straining and thick and blushing red.

I fanned my breath over just the tip and Cassian gritted his teeth on a groan, anchored his heels in the sand to push his hips up, aching to be touched. I drew back, flicked my gaze up to look at him as I pushed him down flat again.

He clamped his teeth into his bottom lip, sucking in a breath when I worked his pants off, tossing them aside. I settled between his knees, watching the way the tendons in his neck strained, the way he followed every move I made with his gaze.

And I flattened my tongue against his cock, dragging up and up, feeling every ridge and vein and pulse, until I reached the head again on a teasing lick, making a rush of obscenities spill from Cassian’s mouth.

He propped himself up with one hand, fingers combing my damp hair away from my face.

“Wait, honey,” he said. “I won’t be able to –  _kriffing shit.”_

He broke off, shuddering, as I closed my mouth around his cock, taking him as far as I could, working up and down his shaft, hollowing my cheeks. I felt him surge on my tongue and pulled off with a wet  _pop_  to find his eyes were glazed, his breathing shallow and fast, so close to the edge that only a few more seconds would have him coming apart.

Before I could do anything else, Cassian wrapped an arm around my waist and spread me out on the blanket beneath him. He hooked my knees over his shoulders and trailed his mouth along the inside of my thigh, the softness of his lips and the prickliness of his scruff making me twitch in surprise and anticipation.

But he stopped, his cheek resting against my hip, looking up at me.

“Cassian,” I pleaded as I placed one foot against his back, coaxing him to close that last unbearable inch of space.

He took my hand and thumbed at the ring on my finger.

“You’re not having second thoughts already,” I said, only partly joking.

He shook his head as he toyed with my fingers. “Waiting for it to sink in. Feels more like a dream and I’m…”

He trailed off, pressing a firm kiss to my thigh, closing his eyes and breathing in deep. His hold on my hip tightened to just shy of bruising and I knew his mind was getting the better of him, worrying at the good until it turned sour with what could go wrong, what he could lose if he wasn’t careful and vigilant every waking moment.

“You’re not imagining things,” I whispered. “I said yes, Cassian. I’ll marry you.”

Gradually, Cassian opened his eyes. The concern was still there – it always would be – but there was relief, too, accompanied by the slightest lift of his lips against my skin, not quite a smile, but something softer, secret, something I could only feel, a lightening of his whole being in that single moment.

He slid both hands under my ass, tilted my hips up and with aching slowness, closed his mouth over my clit. The smooth heat of his tongue made my hands fly to the top of his head, fingers knotted in his hair. He stroked and licked and sucked until my legs were shaking and my knees clamped around his ears.

Cassian hooked his hands over the top of my thighs and worked his jaw into me so mercilessly that I dropped my head back against the sand. His name fell from my lips in a breathless gasp over and over, but he continued to tease, to slide his tongue along the full length of me. When his teeth grazed my clit, I reflexively tugged on his hair and he hummed, the low vibrations sending me shivering that much closer to the edge.

Then Cassian broke away, cool air replacing the warmth of his mouth. Peeling up the hem of his shirt I was wearing, he placed a kiss at my hip, lips ghosting over my skin, up to my waist, over my ribs, between my breasts, and along my throat. He stripped the shirt over my head and brushed his nose against mine, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. His other hand hooked behind my knee, hitching my leg up around his hip, the heavy thickness of his cock dragging along the softness of my thigh.

“I don’t want to wait,” I said all at once, before I realized I was thinking it.

Cassian hesitated. “For what?”

“A wedding. I don’t need one. As soon as we get back to base, let’s sign the proper documents and make it official.”

“But you…” He paused, shook his head. “You already sacrifice so much. You deserve a proper wedding, not a rush job in between assignments.”

I cradled his face in my hands and he sighed, leaning into my touch, his arms braced on either side of me.

“This is all I ever wanted,” I said. “Right here.”

He studied me for several long seconds, the moonlight lining his features in silver and shadow. His thumb skimmed my bottom lip and over my chin, fingertips so careful and delicate at the side of my neck. He nuzzled my cheek as he shifted, bringing his cock right up to my entrance. I drew him down to me, skin sliding on skin, sun and sea and sand.

“I love you,” he whispered on a kiss.

Then he sank into me and his mouth opened with mine on a shared gasp of pleasure.

He had never said those three small words before, too terrified to admit them out loud in case he jinxed the rare, precious moments of good in his life. But he said those three small words again and again now, over and over, imprinting them into my skin with his lips and his hands. He smoothed my hair away from my forehead, studying every shift in my expression as he thrust into me, noting the hitch in my breath, the way my fingertips dug into his back, insistent for more. When I arched against him, taking him as deep into me as I possibly could, I watched with satisfaction as his eyes fluttered closed and he exhaled a low shaky breath before he buried his face in my shoulder.

And he finally stopped thinking, analyzing, planning, and started to move, losing himself to breath and skin, heartbeat and touch. I wrapped my arm around his shoulder, grounding myself with the solidity of his presence, the warmth of his weight against me, as I came apart beneath him, once, then a second time, when he planted his hands on my hips and buried himself inside me as deep as he possibly could. He licked across my tongue, stealing away my small exhale of  _Cassian,_   _oh,_  and I closed my eyes, memorizing the feel of him inside me, around me, in my mouth, in my body, on my skin.

Then I opened my eyes and watched what I did to him, the way he pressed his forehead to my collarbone, heard the rasping roughness of his voice when he said my name so tightly through his teeth before he melted in my arms.

My fingers absently traced the line of his shoulders, the back of his neck, entwined in his hair and I could feel him smile, turning his head to skim his lips along my ribs.

***

A month later, Cassian and I returned to our little piece of paradise and had a proper wedding, barefoot on the beach. After the ceremony – modest and nothing too big, with close friends and family in attendance – we waded into the water, drifting towards the far edge of the island, away from everyone else. He pulled me into his arms and pressed a kiss to my forehead.

“My husband,” I whispered, testing the concept, the reality of it. But the word tasted sweet, settling easily in the stillness.

For a moment, Cassian froze. My arms tightened around his waist and I nudged a kiss to his throat, hoping he wasn’t lost in his head again, hoping that he didn’t think it had been a mistake after all.

“My wife,” he replied softly with a tremble in a voice. It didn’t sound like fear, like dread that it would shatter if he dared to mention it. There was brightness in that one word and how he said it, with an uptick in his tone, as if he couldn’t wait to say it again as soon as possible.


End file.
